Greetings, Folks.

I too have lost a good number of cutout colonies through robbing, especially
those I tried to save after the nectar flow in my area (that is after July).
 For convenience of having to feed the cutouts, I have been bringing them
home.  At my home yard, however, I keep about twenty-five colonies (all
Italian varieties), and ever vigilant, they will not let alone slightest
signs of weakness in the cutouts, the new kid in town, and the strength of
the queen in the cutout seems irrelevant, for I have seen how populace and
stalwart the original colonies had been inside the man-made structures. 
However, once removed through an open-heart surgery, they become disoriented
and super-vulnerable, and the marauders could “smell” something awry with
this new arrival.  To avoid this pitfall, I have changed my strategy as follow:

1.	Set the cutout colonies in a different yard, at least a mile or so away
from your established yards.  Yes, the distance matters even though it may
not be a mile.
2.	This separate yard should have fewer than five small colonies, ideally,
and most of them could be nucs or small colonies not so quickly tempted to rob.
3.	Reduce the entrance of all the colonies in that yard, especially the
newly arrived cutout colonies, to the smallest crack in the wooden reducer.
4.	Do not start feeding them immediately (fight the urge); let the cutout
re-establish and re-orient themselves for a few days at least, as they need
to recuperate after the open-heart surgery, a truly traumatic event.
5.	Never use screened bottoms to set up new cutouts; instead, use only
wooden bottom boards—-to seal the bees and the smell of honey off
completely; when you try to save the brood and sometimes even honey combs on
SBB, robbers will smell the honey via the screen, initiating the thievery,
especially during nectar dearth.  They will even suck right through the
screen, if the bottom of the honey combs, sitting vertically, touches the
screen, for no good deed from the beekeeper should go unpunished.

Yoon

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